Sometimes Diabetes Takes Center Stage

When Diabetes Gets in the Way of Work

January 20, 2011

This morning as I was walking back to the house with Girl Genius and she was having a hard time keeping up. She is four, and completely bundled in snow gear, so it’s hard to get frustrated, but seriously easy when you’re already frustrated because the whole morning was on the late side. So as she’s dawdling, and I feel like my BG is on the higher side, I was reminded of a walk in May.

In May, Girl Genius and I were not as close as we are right now. And Mom Genius was in Europe for the week. She only went to school three days per week then, and this was a day she did not have school. Part of my education is how kids quickly learn about empty threats, so you need to follow through with what you threaten, otherwise, they’ll never take you seriously. This is true in a classroom, as a nanny, and I hear it now from a lot of my mother’s friends who are now grandparents. As we were walking home, she asked me if she could walk on the stone wall, but didn’t say please. If they don’t say please, my response is always either 1. stick my ear out towards them, or 2. “I’m not sure.” On that day I said, “I’m not sure,” and she stomped her feet. So I definitively told her that she could not walk on the wall. So she sat down, and cried. And I explained to her how all she would’ve had to do was say please, and then she could’ve, but since she stomped her feet, she lost the privilege that morning. She wouldn’t stand up, and I didn’t pick her up because she loves getting carried. So we waited, and waited, and waited. And then I got really sweaty, and weak, and tired. And I could see the house, where my tabs were safely staying, but I couldn’t get to them. I suspended my pump hoping it would get better. But it didn’t; my symptoms just got more intense. Eventually I grabbed her hand and we walked back, but she was in time-out. We walked in the house and I was somewhere in the 40s, so I got out my tabs and sat down at the kitchen table. I don’t know how the rest of the day went, but I do know that having D interrupt how I work with kids has made a lasting impact.

And what did I learn? I learned to carry tabs with me on our walks to school.